1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and system for automatically recognizing and displaying on a computer display the physical network configuration of devices on a network that is connected to routers, switches, bridges, repeaters, hubs, terminals, and the like, and includes intelligent packet relay equipment implementing SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).
2. Description of the Related Art
Technologies of recognizing the physical network configuration of devices on a network that is connected to routers, switches, bridges, repeaters, hubs, terminals, and the like, and technologies of displaying the configuration are indispensable to network supervisory and management systems, network chart creation systems, and the like.
The conventional technologies for recognition of network configuration were able to recognize a network that is divided into IP (Internet Protocol) network segments (divided into router-partitioned segments). In this range of technologies, there was a problem that port-to-port connections between devices in each network segment cannot be detected.
To solve the foregoing problem, there have been made the following proposals: that is, “NETWORK CONNECTOR TYPE DETECTING METHOD” (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 11-96094), “NETWORK MONITOR AND METHOD FOR RECOGNIZING TERMINAL CONNECTED TO REPEATER HUB” (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 11-146003), “ROUTER AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT EQUIPMENT” (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-336228), “SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING NETWORK MAP USING BGP ROUTING INFORMATION” (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 9-181722), “NETWORK TOPOLOGY RECOGNITION METHOD AND NETWORK TOPOLOGY RECOGNITION DEVICE” (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 9-186716), and “METHOD FOR RECOGNIZING NETWORK CONSTITUTION” (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-191326).
In addition, the conventional technologies of displaying a network configuration, and even the products including Open View from Hewlett-Packard Company and Visio from Microsoft Corporation, could only provide such a display function as connects a figure corresponding to a network device and a figure corresponding to another network device with a single line segment.
For detection of network configurations, “NETWORK CONNECTOR TYPE DETECTING METHOD” provides a technique of sending test packets to the inter-device links to recognize loop connections lying between bridges and devices connected to the bridges. However, there is a problem of specialization to loop connections.
“NETWORK MONITOR AND METHOD FOR RECOGNIZING TERMINAL CONNECTED TO REPEATER HUB” provides a technique of using a repeater MIB (Management Information Base) to recognize terminal connected to individual repeater ports, whereas it has a problem of undetectability when a plurality of terminals are connected to a repeater port.
“ROUTER AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT EQUIPMENT” provides a technique of detecting connections of packet relay equipment. However, this means is dependent on special hardware, and has a problem of availability in existing network configurations.
“SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING NETWORK MAP USING BGP ROUTING INFORMATION” provides a method for detecting interconnections between autonomous systems (ASs) tailored to BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)-capable routers. This method, however, has a problem that it cannot identify connections within network segments.
“NETWORK TOPOLOGY RECOGNITION METHOD AND NETWORK TOPOLOGY RECOGNITION DEVICE” provides a technique of grasping the connection statuses of bridge devices by using the spanning tree protocol, whereas there is a problem that interconnections cannot be detected of bridges for source routing protocols.
“METHOD FOR RECOGNIZING NETWORK CONSTITUTION” provides a technique of collecting information as to the MAC address of the connection destination of each port of a hub (intelligent hub) by using repeater MIBs under the condition that the connection destination of each hub port is a single terminal, and thereby obtaining the grasp of the physical addresses of the devices to which the ports are connected. This technique, however, cannot detect the configuration of the connection destination of each hub port when hubs are cascaded one another. The terminals each require some means for periodic signal origination, and therefore agent software needs to be introduced to all the terminals. Besides, repeater MIB implementing specifications vary from one vendor to another. Thus, the technique is far from being a solution for general-purpose repeaters.
As for the display of network configurations, there is no method or system of displaying a network configuration chart that allows easy understanding of port-by-port connections of network devices and the like.